Greek and Albanian in Palasa and Environs: a Report from the Field Brian D

Greek and Albanian in Palasa and Environs: A Report from the Field Brian D. Joseph,1 Alexander Novik,2,3 Andrey Sobolev,3 & Aristotle Spiro4 The Ohio State University1, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography2, Russian Academy of Sciences3, Athens4 Abstract We report here on some findings from fieldwork over several years in Palasa, a village near Himara in which the Greek speakers show the effects of long-standing contact with Albanian. We focus on the ethnolinguistic situation, differential borrowing depending on lexical domain, regional ethnobotany, and code-switching in a folk tale. Keywords: fieldwork; Greek; Albanian; ethnobotany; code-switching; borrowing 1. Introduction In recent years, starting in 2015 and continuing annually since then, we — either together or individually — have made linguistic and ethnographic field expeditions to Palasa, a Greek-speaking village in the Himara region of southern Albania whose inhabitants are all speakers of a local variety of Greek but also a local variety of Albanian. By way of sharing our field experiences more broadly we present here some observations concerning this village and the linguistic and cultural gems that it offers to linguists and ethnographers, and to Albanologists, Balkanists, and Hellenists. In some ways, Palasa might seem like a dying village, in that most of the 389 inhabitants (Bërxholi 2006: 233) are older folks, in their 50s and 60s, and the most recent new construction in the village is a home for the care of the elderly. However, from a linguistic and cultural standpoint, Palasa is a vibrant linguistic milieu in which the linguistic productions of the speakers seamlessly flow between two languages in their conversations and daily usage, and in which elements of both Greek and Albanian culture are neatly compartmentalized and accessed by the inhabitants. In this way, it is a monument to Balkan multilingualism and multiculturalism and offers important and interesting insights for anyone interested in Greek dialectology. Accordingly, as part of an on-going large project on language contact and language use in Palasa and related areas, we report here on some of our findings from Palasa, along several dimensions. In particular: a. We discuss general aspects of the ethnolinguistic situation in the region, and the dialectological status of the local Greek variety, locating this ethnolinguistic situation within a more general Greek dialectological context. -69- Brian D. Joseph, Alexander Novik, Andrey Sobolev & Aristotle Spiro b. We discuss our findings regarding lexical domains, showing a highly differentiated picture in the distribution of loans in different semantic spheres in both languages. c. From a more culturological standpoint, though with some linguistic implications in terms of nomenclature, we discuss novel folk beliefs about certain regional plants and their uses. d. Finally, we offer an example of code-switching, in this case embedded in a local folk tale. 2. The Ethnolinguistic situation The ethnolinguistic situation of the region of Himara is best described in terms of the languages spoken in the villages in the area, namely the vernaculars of the Albanian- speaking villages of Vuno, Qeparo, Kudhës and Pilur (Memushaj & Grillo 2009),1 but also Drymades (Dhërmi in its Albanian name), Palasa, and Himara itself, where, according to Albanian researchers, alongside Albanian, Greek is also spoken (Memushaj 2004: 180, Demiraj 2006, Sotiri 2006: 264). It is not clear when exactly Greek speakers and Albanian speakers first met in the wider region of Himara, as historical sources do not help to set an absolute date for the beginning of their linguistic contact. But one thing is certain today: after a long coexistence, there is now a culturally special area, with clear distinctions between the two cultures, which have not merged completely but rather are intertwined, and this intertwining is linguistically expressed in a twofold way: three villages (Himara, Drymades and Palasa) use Greek as their language of communication, while the four other villages (Vuno, Qeparo, Kudhës and Pilur) use Albanian. But, because of the coexistence of the two languages and the speakers’ communicative needs, Greek-speaking Himariotes learned and use Albanian and, Albanian-speaking Himariotes have learned and use Greek. In the last case, however, we have little evidence for the time before the 1990s, when Greek became very attractive for monolingual Albanians as the language of a more prosperous economic model in the neighbouring country, opening the way to mass labour migrations from the region. This dual character of the region and its inhabitants is expressed not only linguistically, but also ethnologically and historically: one can read references to Greek soldiers in the West (see e.g. Sathas 1885) who spoke Albanian. Many Greek-speaking people call themselves “Albanians”, giving the term Albania a geographic content with a diverse ethnological composition. On the one hand, we have Greeks from Albania (such as the Himariotes, but also Delvinians, Dropolites, Riziotes, etc., further south in Albania) labelling themselves as “Arvanites”, while on the other hand we have Albanians identifying themselves in a wider European context as “Greek” (as “stradioti”, Balkan mercenary companies in the 15th – 18th centuries; see Sathas 1885). There are instances where the terms “Epirotes” and “Epirus” are confused or identified with “Albanian” and 1 The village of Vuno was selected by Albanian dialectologists to represent the idioms of the area in the Albanian linguistic atlas (Gjinari et al. 2007). -70- Greek and Albanian in Palasa and Environs: A Report from the Field “Albania” respectively; for instance, the Dictionarum latino-epiroticum of Franciscus Blancus translates in Albanian as Fjaluer ltinisht-shqyp [Latin – Albanian Dictionary]). Linguistic and other studies about the Himara region have followed the academic tradition of the Balkans to support one or another national character of the region. In 2006, the Academy of Sciences of Albania issued a collective publication of 25 articles and studies under the title Himara në shekuj (Himara diachronically). There is no text in this edition about the Greek dialect of Himara. Studies of the Greek dialect(s) of the Himara area, except for lexicological research and descriptions of certain phonological facts, have not proceeded to the grammatical level. The examination of a possible relationship with the Greek dialects of Mani or of Southern Italy and their position within the Modern Greek diasystem was a leading issue for a time, while their relationship with the respective Albanian dialects of the region was not studied at all. The bilingual situation, which features the speech of the speakers of the dialect, and helps to explain the state of affairs both in the Greek and Albanian dialects of Himara, had not until recently been a subject of study. There is interesting linguistic and dialectal material evident, which explains more clearly the situation concerning bilingualism of Palasa, Drymades/Dhërmi and Himara, which together constitute a narrow zone of Greek-Albanian bilingualism in the region. Himara itself has served as the center of the region, and is the emerging point of communication patterns for the wider region. This has ensured the prestige of Greek (in its dialectal form), which nevertheless has undergone strong pressures and influences from the Albanian dialects of the Albanian-speaking Himariotes and the adjacent Lab dialects.2 The conservative Greek dialect of Himara has been the target of pressures from various types of Greek, from the language used in the church to influences of linguistically innovative settlements, such as Ioannina and Corfu. Moreover, Palasa is more exposed to the pressure and influence of the Albanian language than is either Drymades/Dhërmi or Himara. Greek has been used as a “regional koine” from early times throughout the historical period (that is to say, the time of written historical sources). Here we refer to historical evidence such as the letters of the inhabitants of Himara addressed to Greek and non- Greek recipients, where, despite the attempt to cast the written discourse in a common variety of Greek, several dialect forms of Himariote usage slip in, such as a 1pl medio- passive ending -μεσταν (versus, e.g., Standard Modern Greek -μασταν), or the accentuation χωρίου (versus SMG χωριού), or the ε-vocalism in πλερώσῃ (versus SMG πληρώσῃ), to name just a few features that are striking from the perspective of Greek dialectal variation. However, with the introduction of Albanian as the official language of the state, the image of Greek presence in the region changed. Its status was downgraded, and from a status as a prestigious language, it was restricted to minority-language status and then — initially with King Zogu’s first attempt in 1934 to ban schools and then in 1946 with the prohibition of minority status by E. Hoxha’s Communist regime — it became a forbidden language. This situation is reflected today in the cemeteries of the three settlements of Himara, where the majority of the inscriptions are written in Albanian. This is the absolute rule until the 1990s, when the Greek language reappears in a small number of graves. 2 According to Albanian thinking, all Himariotes are Labs, as Himara is part of Laberia. -71- Brian D. Joseph, Alexander Novik, Andrey Sobolev & Aristotle Spiro However, considering, for example that cemetery location of Palasa was changed four times, one may come to the conclusion that the change of location may have been used as a reason for ending the tradition of using Greek in the grave inscriptions. In the context of the Greek-Albanian bilingualism of the Himara region, the positions of Greek and Albanian differ with respect to their corresponding diasystems. While the Greek dialect of Himara is conservative relative to other modern Greek dialects, the Albanian dialect, as it is produced by the main Greek-speaking inhabitants of Himara, follows the normal form of the other Albanian dialects of the region (Vuno, Qeparo, Kudhës and Pilur), as well as of the adjacent Lab dialects.

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